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A comment on Where Pair Programming Fails for Me.

Re:Where Pair Programming Fails for Me by nphase on Wednesday December 29, 2010 @07:18PM (#2050696)
"And if I was writing code, I found something very interesting: I don’t think in English when I write code. I think in code first, and I can translate written code to English. When I was trying to talk to people when I was writing code, I found that I’d have to write pseudocode and then talk to them about it -- and when my pair wanted me to talk about code, he wanted me to stop typing. But if I stopped typing, I couldn’t describe what I was doing. Every time I tried to write code and talk to my partner at the same time, I could feel the lurch between what I could feel -- the complex shape of it in my head -- and what I was having to say."

(emphasis mine). What an incredibly familiar description. Does anyone else ever feel this way? This is why in situations where I'm trying to describe a solution I end up just grabbing the keyboard, doing it myself, and letting the code talk for itself.

For me, pair programming comes easily when describing a solution that can be simply defined and understood. Doesn't matter how difficult the problem itself is. Pair programming becomes more difficult once you have to interrupt your coding to facilitate the process. As an introvert, this comes incredibly unnaturally to me.

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Re:Where Pair Programming Fails for Me by cowpewter on Thursday December 30, 2010 @10:10PM (#2054393)
Yes, that does sound familiar. I've never done pair programming, but I have the feeling I'd have a lot of the same problems as the OP. I'm very much an introvert, and even just our open-plan office sometimes has me wanting to shut myself away by the end of the day. And the more code I write, the less English I seem to speak, especially to describe code. I wind up either flailing my arms and speaking gibberish (only a mild exaggeration) or just giving up and writing pseudo-code because I just can't express the concept any other way. English just isn't precise enough.
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